From today's
Presser
Chief Deputy - At about 1.45 this afternoon our emergency communications centre, received a telephone call about a missing 1 1/5 yr. old child. Our Deputy Sheriff's immediately responded to the scene, and were on the scene about 5 minutes and 20 sec. after the initial call was received.
So the information we've been able to gather so far, is that Jose went missing at about 30 minutes before that call, so somewhere right around 1.15 this afternoon. And he was last seen playing in the backyard with his sister, his sibling. The mother was also present and she took the sister inside the house after she had gotten dirty, and wanted to be cleaned up. A few minutes late came back outside, and were unable to find the little boy.
The family, it's a large family, that lives in this kind of a family compound here, large family began the search, and when they couldn't find Jose in about a half hour, the Sheriff's office was contacted, and we responded.
So since then we have been on the scene, and as you can see behind me in large numbers, a little bit about what's going on here is - we have multiple bloodhound teams that are actively tracking at this time in the wooded area behind the house. We have found on one of those tracks, a toy, that the little boy is known to play with, so that's hopeful. And we continue to work, the area is very rural, so it's a lot of woods and a pond back in the area behind the house, so we continue to work that. We are flying drones, advanced drones by the Putnam County Sheriff's Office and also the Volusia County Sheriff's Office helicopter has been on scene for quite a while. They have since left for another call, but will be back shortly. As the temperature drops, FLIR, our night vision systems become more accurate, so we will be flying through the night using those systems, and right now in addition to the K9, there is about 15 men and women from the Sheriff's office from Putnam County in the woods, doing grid searches, calling his name and doing everything we can.
This is a large family, we've reached out to all of them to see if anybody has any information, but haven't got any. Our detectives, all of our major crime detectives are on scene. We are also actively checking in on all of our sex offenders and sexual predators in the area, just to make sure we know where they are and where they have been through the day. But I do want to be clear at this time, there is absolutely no information to suggest that there is anything other than a lost child at this point. Of course we're investigating all angles. The detectives are interviewing family members and friends, but at this time we don't have any information to suggest any foul play. That's why there has been no Amber Alert issued, but the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement has issued a missing child report. We are working with the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement and other missing children organisations, and basically at this point, just going through the missing child, child abduction checklist, making sure that we're covering all of our bases.
Reporter - Any nearby bodies of water? And are you considering bringing in a dive team?
Chief Deputy - There is a pond, it is back in the wooded area quite a bit. We wouldn't expect that he made it that far, the woods are very very thick, a lot of underbrush, a lot of briars, a lot of sticky bushes that it's not likely that he would have gone through, but we are searching that area right now. If any of the canines or any evidence along the edge of that pond indicates that, we absolutely have a dive team on standby for that.
Reporter - So basically you said the kid Jose was outside with his sibling playing, you said the mum took the sibling inside to wash sibling off, came back out to look for him and he was gone?
Chief Deputy - That's correct, and you know he is 1 1/5 years old, you know children of that age can sometimes be very quick, and so like I say, we're operating at this time just that he has wandered off, praying for the best and luckily this time we don't have any evidence to suggest otherwise.
Reporter - What has the family shared about his walking capabilities?
Chief Deputy - They said that he is very active, very mobile. Most all of this property you see behind me is owned by that family, so he goes back there with his dad and things along those lines. He's not unfamiliar with this area.
Reporter - Any concerns about wildlife?
Chief Deputy - Well you know, we're going to get a bit cooler tonight of course, this is rural Florida and that does exist, so we're just going to keep our searching up and hopefully that we'll find some evidence of him shortly.
Reporter - I know that a lot of people in the community were gathered over there, I think they left but they're wanting to know what they can do to help?
Chief Deputy - Absolutely, so we've had a lot of outreach from the community. Also, lots of outreach from Sheriff's Office's across the state of Florida offering assistance. It depends on how long this goes, and where it goes from here. We may, at a point, organise volunteer search parties. We may ask other Sheriff's Office's to assist. Right now assisting us is our Volusia County Sheriff's Office with their aviation asset. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commission is on scene, and one of the K9 teams on scene is from the St. John's County Sheriff's Office.
Reporter - So you guys plan on searching all night?
Chief Deputy - Absolutely. So the next big thing that we'll be seeing is when we start the air search again, as the temperature drops, hoping to use some of that night vision and infrared technology more effectively than it works in the heat, but we will be on scene all night and not giving up until we locate Jose.
